Today's power electronics is silicon-based. Although current Si technology can meet current requirements, anticipated requirements beyond the year 2000 for high-power electronics are so stringent that it appears unlikely that they can be met by a Si-based technology. Among the requirements are thermal stability, speed (mobility and saturation velocity), and high breakdown field.
In view of the expected failure of Si-based power electronics (e.g., diodes, thyristors, gate turn-off thyristors, MOSFETs) to meet future requirements, possible alternative technologies are being contemplated, with wide bandgap semiconductors being promising. A comparison of the physical properties and availability of the main contender semiconductors suggests that SiC (silicon carbide) and GaN (gallium nitride) are the most desirable high bandgap semiconductors for power electronics, inter alia due to their excellent breakdown and transport properties.
Before power devices can be implemented in a SiC-based or GaN-based technology, many processing problems have to be solved. Prominent among these problems is the growth of an oxide layer on the semiconductor, such that demanding interface requirements are met.
Growth of high quality oxide has been demonstrated on SiC. See, for instance, S. Ryu et al., IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 18(5), p. 194, May 1997. However, to date it has not been possible to grow high quality oxide on GaN. Thus, it would be highly desirable to have available a technique for growing such oxide on GaN. This application discloses such a technique, as well as an article that comprises a layer of such oxide on GaN.